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Comment by ahazred8ta | Hacker News Reader

Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World http://www.simonwinchester.com/exactly

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book)

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38840.Boyd

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The thing about Boyd that really resonated with me was.

1) Realizing that he was better at something than everyone else around him.

2) Figuring out what it was that was making him better.

3) Reducing it to practice, so it could be taught to others and refined to become even better.

Amazing story.

Boyd gets far too much credit for the F-16. If he had his way it wouldn't work at night or honestly at all in the face of the current threat environment.

The Day Fighter role https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_fighter was viable for many decades and is still common in many non- first world countries. He invented the concept of maintaining low drag during high-G maneuvers.

Boyd’s contributions might seem impressive but he seemed like a disgusting human being. He was confrontational, chewed his nails, smoked cigars, made his family live in a tiny apartment so he could be close to work, etc. I can’t remember it all but I quit reading his biography 3/4s in because he just sounded like horrendous person.

I loved Longitude, and Harrison was a determined guy, but the most interesting part for me was seeing the “rewrite from scratch” and “never ship” dynamics are old indeed! He had a MVP with his first iteration.

Unfortunately I got this as an audiobook and the author, who is born in the Bronx, decided for some reason to read it in a British accent which made it really hard for me to get through. Might have to get the book itself and give it another try.

Longitude is a great book, I thought this was cool too re. one of the clocks Harrison designed - https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/19/clockmaker-j...

How the Empire State building got built in only a year: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/building-fast-and-slo... (article)

I'm extremely excited to read Exactly, thanks for the recommendation.

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